Merlin Carpenter

Why has there been so much interest in “surplus value” in recent years? In “The Outside Can't Go Outside”, artist Merlin Carpenter considers how this term has been inserted into contemporary art theory following the financial crisis of 2007/8.

Merlin Carpenter investigates the status of the midcareer artist with a conceptual project involving the exhibition of transit blankets. The publication documents these works and related gallery shows, in addition with texts by Kunsthalle Bern director Valérie Knoll and artist Sam Lewitt.

Focused on a series of exhibitions entitled The Opening—marked by the fact that all the paintings presented were produced at the galleries during the exhibition openings—the book documents all six events via text and snapshot-like images.